|
|
Web
Design
Tutorial
#4 Design
Your
Web
Page
|
Once
you
know
exactly
what
you
intend
to
publish
and
who
the
targeted
audience
will
be,
the
next
step
is
to
determine
the
mood
of
your
page.
Should
the
ambience
be
informal,
professional
or
high
tech?
Will
you
use
graphics,
animation
or
music?
How
will
the
text
be
structured
and
which
fonts
will
be
used?
How
will
visitors
navigate
through
your
site?
Whatever
you
decide,
try
to
maintain
the
same
theme
throughout
your
site.
The
most
important
part
of
your
page
is
the
textual
content.
What
you
write
should
add
value
and
make
the
visitor
want to
return.
Review
your
web
page
objectives
and
targeted
audience
and
make
your
message
suit
the
audience.
Don't
forget
to
run
a
spell
check
before
publishing
your
page.
At
this
point,
focus
on
content!
Publishing
on
the
net
is
different
from
writing
for
a
newspaper
in
that
you
are
able
to
take
advantage
of
multimedia
capabilities.
Photos,
graphics,
music
and
video
can
make
your
site
interesting.
Be
careful
however,
not
to
overdo
it.
Graphics, for
example
are
often
large
files
that
take
time
to
download.
Most
people
won't
wait
more
than
thirty
seconds
for
a
web
page
to
load.
Animated
graphics
are
actually
small
programs
which also
can
take
time
to
run
on
a
computer
that
is
slow
or has
insufficient
memory
(RAM).
Don't
forget
that
personal
computers,
modems
and
versions
of
software
differ
among
web
users.
A
web
page
that
runs
well
on
your
machine
might
not
function
well
on
another.
When
writing
web
pages,
the
golden
rule
is:
Small
is
beautiful!
If
you're designing a
personal web site or
a site to sell your
artistic
talents by all
means show off your
talent in the way
you design your web
site. However, if
you're trying to
sell commercial
products to the
general public keep
your web design
simple and easy to
navigate. The
internet as the rest
of the world has
enough starving
"artists".
Don't become one of
them by placing
"artistic
style" ahead of
good common
advertising
sense.
A
note
of
good
advice:
The
new
Streaming
Media
and
special
effects
such
as
"Flash"
are
wonderful
to
behold
and
are
even
quite
entertaining
if
done
well.
However,
if
you
are
building
a
web
site
for
the
sale
of
E-Commerce
services
or
products,
you
should
consider
not
including
Streaming
or
Flash
due
to
the
extreme
download
time
associated
with
these
programs
at
this
time.
If
everyone
used
cable
instead
of
phone
modems
to
access
the
net
then
speed
would
not
be
a
problem,
but
until
then...
Potential
customers
that
are
looking
for
a
service
or
product
will
have
hundreds
of
choices
of
web
sites
available
to
choose
from.
Online
polls
have
concluded
that
most
customers
(73%)
will
not
wait
for
Flash
and
Streaming
to
load
when
seeking
a
service or
product,
but
will
simply
click
on
the
next
web
site
listed
in
their
search
results.
Also
many
browsers
and
personal
computers
are
not
equipped
with
the
software
necessary
to
play
Streaming
Media
and
a
download
of
the
current
software
would
be
required
for
your
potential
customer
to
see
your
web
site.
You
can
find
free
graphics
on
the
web
by
searching
for
"Index
of
GIF
files"
or
"GIF
library".
When
you
find
something
you
like,
copy
it
to
a
folder
on
your
PC
by
right
clicking
on
the
graphic
and
selecting
"copy".
To
find
appropriate
music,
search
for
"midi"
with
the
name
of
the
singer
or
composer.
The
names
of
these
two
file
types
terminate
with
".gif"
and
".mid".
If
you
suspect
that
a
graphic
or
song
is
copyrighted,
you
should
ask
permission
from
the
owner
before
taking
it.
To
keep
life
simple,
all
pictures,
animations,
graphics,
music,
etc.
that
you
plan
to
use
on
your
home
page
should
be
stored
in
the
same
directory
as
your
main
HTML
program
file.
If
you
haven't
already
done
so,
create
a
directory
on
your
hard
drive
to
consolidate
all
the
software
components
that
you
will
use
on
your
page.
Set
up
different
folders
within
your
directories
for
ease
of
use
such
as,
graphics
with
sub
folders
like
photos,
buttons,
animations,
banners,
etc.,
make
a
separate
folder
for
text
content
and
so
on.
The
use
of
tables
to
group
and
align
text
can
help
make
a
page
more
attractive.
Tables
are
fast
to
load
and
are
easily
generated
from
most
HTML
Editors.
The
spacing
between
cells
and
the
border
around
the
cells
and
table
can
be
altered
or
made
invisible.
Text
and
graphics
within
table
cells
can
be
right
justified,
left
justified
or
centered.
NEXT #
5 Buy
or
Download
A
Web
Editor
|
